Mule Day of Yesteryear: 1980

Two Santa Fe men will leave this weekend on a 50-mile odyssey by mule-drawn wagon to commemorate the 30th anniversary of what has become Mule Day’s best known story.

In 1950, the late Charlie Skillington of Santa Fe rode “Headlight Nell” from his home to Nashville to give then-Gov. Gordon Browning a personal invitation to Mule Day.

Thirty years later, Skillington’s son, John Robert, and grandson, Ricky, are planning a three-day wagon ride from their home on Snow Creek Road to the capitol in Nashville. On Tuesday morning, they will present Gov. Lamar Alexander with an invitation to Mule Day, set April 12-13 in Columbia.

The Ride is one of several tributes being paid to “Mr. Charlie,” who died Oct. 1, 1979, during this year’s Mule Day celebration. A mule with an empty saddle will ride in the parade; limited edition prints are being sold to restore a park barn and set up a scholarship fund, both in Skillington’s honor; and numerous other commemmoratives are planned.

The elder Skillington was nationally known as a mule trader and mule judge. He was instrumental in the organization of several Mule Days and was active in its revival in 1974.

The idea of another ride to Nashville to commemorate “Mr. Charlie” began with Ricky, John Robert Skillington said this week. “He wanted to ride to meet the governor like his granddaddy did. This is his trip: I’m just going along for the ride.”

No truck will follow the wagon along the route: “We’ll be on our own,” John Robert said. “We’ll have food and everything else we need in the wagon with us.”

The trip begins at 8 a.m. Sunday in Santa Fe. Ricky and John Robert plan to ride through Theta and Spring Hill, stopping for the first night at the Millford Mitchum Jr. home just north of Spring Hill. The next day, they will begin at 7 a.m., and travel U.S. 31 to Ellington Agricultural Center. At 10 a.m. Tuesday, they will finish their journey at the capitol, invite Alexander to Mule Day, and truck their mules home that night.

John Robert said the pair will take a slightly different route than his father’s, which led through Hillsboro. Charlie’s trip was ten miles shorter, but took only three days. John Robert said the new trip will cover 16 miles the first day, 25 miles the second and 10 on the final leg.”

Charlie also rode his mule, but this weekend’s trip will be by mule-drawn wagon. “These mules do better with a wagon than a rider,” John Robert said. “This is a good wagon team.”

The team is “Kate” and “Alice,” a pair of 7-year-olds. The Skillingtons have owned the team since 1977, and they have taken part in each Mule Day parade since and several wagon trains.

“We also plant and do some cultivating with them,” John Robert said.

Kate is also the 1980 “King Mule” for next month’s Mule Day festivities. John Robert noted this also reproduces his father’s 1950 trip: Charlie rode “Headlight Nell” to Nashville, and Nell was King Mule that year.

The pair of mules are also well-suited for a trip through downtown Nashville because they are “traffic-broken,” he said. “If a truck roars up beside them, they don;t get upset.”

John Robert also rode 300 miles in the 1976 Bicentennial wagon train, and has promoted a wagon train each summer since. He said wagons usually do not have many problems with more mechanical traffic.

“Occasionally people get irritated if they have to follow you for a long way, but usually they are nice,not bothering us or the team. Sure, some stare or ignore us, but others wave and holler ‘I wish I could go with you.’”

One problem which “Mr.Charlie” did not have in 1950 was where to park his mule. His descendants are staying at Ellington Center because “there just are not that many places in Nashville you can leave a wagon and team overnight.”